1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and a wireless communication apparatus that establishes a wireless communication network with other wireless communication apparatuses through a wireless access point apparatus, and a control method for controlling the wireless communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Products conforming to IEEE 802.11 standards, which are standards for wireless local area networks, are widely used in these years. Configurations of wireless LANs are broadly classified into infrastructure mode and ad hoc mode. An infrastructure mode network includes multiple stations (STAs, terminal stations) and access points (AP, base stations). An ad-hoc mode network includes multiple STAs, and wireless communication apparatuses directly communicate with each other without using an access point.
Educational institutions such as schools and cram schools are increasingly actively using wireless LANS. One example is a wireless communication system including a display that has an access point function and multiple client terminals used by students, each of which has a station function. In the wireless communication system, information of client terminals wirelessly connected with the display can be displayed on the screen of the display. A teacher or instructor operating the display can perform operations to identify students, establish groups, or divide students into groups through the wireless LAN while conducing classes or delivering a lecture.
An example of grouping is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-82990 in which one of arbitrary two mobile stations belonging to a cell functions as a secondary base station to form a new cell, thus dividing one cell into several cells.
However, the wireless communication system described above has the following problems:
(1) If many students access the teacher at a time in order to ask questions without arbitration, contention for a radio band occurs, which significantly degrades the response time.
(2) The manner of operation for dynamically dividing students into arbitrary groups according to a subject and time is cumbersome and complicated.
(3) Once students are divided into groups, the groups use their individual wireless channels. Therefore, radio interference occurs between neighboring groups.